


As Good a Time as Any

by duchessofthemoonbase



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, First Date, First Kiss, Fluff, Picnic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-07-14 16:35:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16044317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duchessofthemoonbase/pseuds/duchessofthemoonbase
Summary: As the Millenium Falcon is leaving Crait, Rey is introduced to Poe Dameron, the dashing resistance war hero.And he wants to take her on a date. Now.





	As Good a Time as Any

The mood aboard the millennium falcon was strange as they sped away from Crait, as the remaining members of the resistance collected themselves and began to process the day’s events. There was no way to know where things were going to go from here. They had lost Luke, but his death had not been tragedy as much as apotheosis, and the members of the resistance felt his presence, even now.

BB-8 let out a series of beeps and tilted his head up at Rey, who noticed that his antenna was bent again. As she leaned down to fix it, she felt a presence approaching behind her, and stood up nervously.

“I’m Poe,” a man said, the sudden impact of his dark, romantic eyes making her catch her breath.

“Rey,” she said, reaching out her hand.

“I know,” he said, smiling, and something about the way he said it made Rey beam like a supernova.

Rey blushed. This was Poe Dameron, of course…she’d heard the stories. The swashbuckling war hero, the dashing pilot, the heartthrob. And of course, the guardian of her beloved little droid friend.

“Look, um,” Poe said, nervously stretching an arm behind his head. “Would you maybe want to get something to eat, or we could hang out or something, if you’re not too busy, I uh—”

Rey giggled incredulously. “You’re asking me out? Now? Have you already forgotten where we were, oh, I don’t know… _three hours ago_?”

Poe bit his bottom lip. “When I saw you I did,” he said, without an ounce of insincerity.

Rey looked down and blushed again, unsure of how to respond. After a life alone scavenging, she wasn’t quite accustomed to how she was supposed to react in instances of…well, flirting.

“Oh,” she said, only just processing the reality of the request. “I suppose that would be nice.”

“Great,” Poe said. “Let’s go.”

“What? Now?” Rey laughed as Poe took her hand and led her down the corridor and past the crowds of people recovering. His hands were rough and calloused from piloting, but so incredibly warm.

“Yeah, now,” Poe said as they snuck around a corner. “I’ve been waiting forever to meet you and there’s not much to do on this ratty old ship, so why not now?”

Rey just smiled in return. Poe stopped next to a cubby to pull out a cloth sack, and then motioned for Rey to follow him down the corridor to a tiny room.

“In here,” Poe whispered, and Rey followed him into what appeared to be a cramped engine room.

“I’m sorry?” Rey said. “Are you serious?”

“What?”

“The engine room? If people find out we were in here, what do you think they’re going to think?”

“I just wanted us to have some privacy, that’s all,” Poe affirmed with total seriousness.

Rey just scoffed. “You have a reputation, Dameron.”

“A reputation?”

“You know what I mean,” Rey shook her head. “Never mind. What’s in the bag?”

Poe beamed. “Surprise picnic,” he said. Rey watched with wide eyes as Poe converted the bag to a large blanket that covered the tiny floor of the engine room, and then took out a smaller bag that appeared to hold food. He pulled out two bottles of vintage, violet-tinted wine from Yavin 4 along with what looked to be some sort of sandwiches—impossibly fluffy bread with meat and tiny red and green vegetables.

“Where did you get all this?” Rey asked. “Things are so hard to come by these days.”

“I won a Holochess game against an innkeeper a couple of months back,” Poe said, screwing open the two small wine bottles. “This was my prize, and I figured I’d save it for a special occasion.”

“Well thanks for choosing me,” Rey said, and she smiled back at him. There was a tense feeling to this otherwise casual lunch date that Rey couldn’t quite shake. Two strangers meeting was one thing, but they weren’t exactly that—they were two of the most infamous members of the resistance, and surely Poe knew as many stories about her as she knew about him. Just minutes before, Rey had heard people talking excitedly about how Poe had heroically slid into a trench on Crait and immediately sprang into action.

“How are you holding up after today?” Poe asked. “I know Luke was your mentor, and you were closer to him than anyone during his final days.”

Rey was pleasantly surprised at this kindness. “I’m okay,” she said. “I’m not sure I’ve really processed any of it yet…not completely, anyway.”

“I get that,” Poe said, and took a large swig of the wine. “I hope you like this wine,” he said. “It always reminds me of home. Rumor has it that it was my mother’s favorite.”

“Shara Bey,” Rey said. “I’ve heard about her. She was incredibly brave…I’m sorry,” Rey added.

“It’s alright,” Poe said, and stretched out on the blanket, "It means a lot to me when people remember her." They could hear the murmuring of people outside in the distance. The mood seemed to vary from person to person…exhaustion to despair to jubilation to a muted hope…no one could have predicted how the events of the day were going to hit them. It felt nice to be away from it all, even for a little bit, and to have a moment that was not surrounded with that level of emotional chaos.

Poe had already finished his sandwich and was leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes. Rey found herself raking her eyes over his body, and found that it stirred something within her that she couldn’t quite identify. Poe suddenly opened his eyes, as if he could sense Rey’s gaze, and gave her a smile. Rey blushed and stared back down at her sandwich. Asleep, he was handsome, but when he smiled at her he became ten times more dangerous.

“What did you mean earlier?” Poe asked, a hint of daring in his eyes.

“What?”

“Earlier. About my reputation.”

Rey scrunched her nose up in embarrassment. “I don’t know, I just mean—”

Poe gave her a look that let her know it was useless bullshitting him, and she sighed.

“You’ve slept with every other person in the resistance, Poe,” Rey said. “And the other half would like to. You’re a bit of an irresistible heartbreaker.”

Poe leaned closer to her, smiling and biting his lip. “Is that what you think of me, Rey?”

Rey felt heat rush through her. “I mean, I’ve only just met you, that’s just what people—”

“An _irresistible_ heartbreaker?”

Rey was about to giggle out of pure embarrassment and terror, but when she looked up, she saw Poe’s deep brown eyes luring her in closer, and saw he was deadly serious. “I won’t break your heart, Rey,” he said, bringing up a hand to stroke her cheek. “Not if you don’t want me to.”

“I know,” Rey said, and she did. She really did.

In a moment that simultaneously moved both too fast and too slow to be real, Poe put his hands on her waist, pulled her flush against him, and kissed her with the kind of passion and earnestness that a man can only have after he’s narrowly escaped death. Rey fell into his embrace and kissed him back with a fervor, tangling her hands in his dark curls, not caring that this was too early or too ridiculous or too dangerous to make any sense. This man was gorgeous, and brave, and she needed him now more than ever, and she happily sighed as they fell onto the blanket, and—

“Dameron? Seriously?”

Rey suddenly jumped as she recognized the voice, and looked up into the stern face of General Organa as she stared down at the two of them, halfway through the process of tearing each other’s clothes off on the floor of the engine room. Poe looked as if he had gotten this lecture from her before, and looked embarrassed. The General just laughed.

“I knew getting you two in the same room was a bad idea,” she said, and walked away.


End file.
